The article below is from Supporters' Direct, and gives news from SD, the Trust Movement, from the governing bodies as well as other relevant news and information. This newsletter is published monthly and we will include this on our website, for your information.

If any of the articles, are of particular interest or inspire you to get involved, please contact one of the Trust Board members or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

SD Events

SD National Conference Date & Venue Announced

The 2008 Supporters Direct National Conference will be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster on Thursday 16th October 2008.

More information will be made available in the run up to the event.  
 

SD News

The Till I Die Voice of the Supporters Book: Update

The National Literacy Trust, SD’s partner in the project, has secured two grants for the project: £90,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families; and £33,120 from the Football Foundation.

The book, based on a series of successful books at a range of clubs, allows you and your club’s fans to create a book about your club: local football fans telling their stories about their club.

These grants enable 8 supporters’ trusts to produce their own book in the next year. It will also pay for 600 books to be given free to children at a local school and £1,000 of sales from the book to be used to purchase book vouchers for school children. Also the National Literacy Trust will hold a launch event where the books will be given to the school children. All these conditions should prove very beneficial to any trust wishing to develop community links, especially with local schools.

The project is managed by Legends Publishing, which involves getting contributors, running workshops to collect stories where a Study for Life tutor will help people get their stories on paper and all the production associated with the books. Any participating trust can get as involved as much as they want but it is not very intensive on a trust’s time and resources.

As a result each trust only has to contribute £1,500, which will be recouped from the sale of 900 books and they should also make a profit of about £2,900. Both Aldershot and Walsall supporters’ trusts have already started their books.

If any other trust is interested then please contact Tom Hall on 020 72731657 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

MEMBER SERVICES

Legal Helpline

Many trusts often have issues that seem like there might be a legal angle. However, unless you’re lucky enough to have a good law firm on hand, many Trusts shy away from getting a definitive answer for fear of the cost.

SD has worked with Cobbetts solicitors to give member trusts access to a free legal helpline that provides that good law firm to advise the trust, free of charge. It will give you immediate answers on the most common issues affecting trusts & clubs, including the legal relationship between the two, company and property law, and other disputes.

If something crops up which needs more work and can't be handled over the phone, then Cobbetts will be able to take it forward at a reduced rate (15% off their usual advertised rates) for members of Supporters Direct.

To use the service call 0845 165 5500. It is only available to full member trusts of Supporters Direct.

If you are unsure whether you query is one requiring specialized legal help, contact James Mathie in the first instance, and if necessary he can refer you on to Cobbetts.

Insurance for Trusts

Supporters Direct have negotiated a specialist insurance scheme with Heath Lambert Group, available to all member trusts.

As a Board member of your Trust, you accept ultimate responsibility for directing the affairs of the Trust. Although the chances of you personally becoming liable or of the Trust losing its assets are slim, good quality cover can provide the peace of mind to remove one less worry.

It has been designed specifically for trusts, providing cover for all the crucial areas of Trust activity and so peace of mind for Trust Board members.


To take advantage of the package, call Paul Breakwell at Heath Lambert on 01384 822282 or contact him via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The service is only available to full member trusts of Supporters Direct

About Heath Lambert

This scheme is managed and operated by Heath Lambert Group, the UK’s leading independent insurance broker, using specialists who have the in-depth expertise to provide complete insurance solutions to the risks faced by you and your club or trust. The scheme insurer is Hiscox, one of the UK’s specialist insurers with a long history of creating unique insurance packages to protect its policyholders. This combination means that you are able to access a competitive package of cover designed with your trust’s needs in mind.

For any member enquiry, contact James Mathie on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 020 7273 1532


Additional copies of SD Magazine and Pocket Guide at cost price

Member Trusts can get extra copies of the SD magazine and/or pocket guides to be bought in bulk at cost price from our printers.

All of the magazines are available in PDF format on the website, but this is an excellent way of spreading the trust movement message to your members, other fans and external partners.


Affinity Marketing

Several trusts already use Easyfundraising and the money they have received from getting their members and other visitors to their sites to purchase goods is impressive. Trusts can sign up to use it by visiting the referral page here:

The more you promote the scheme to your members and encourage them to use the portal whenever they’re buying goods online, the more you receive.

Easyfundraising can also supply you with free bespoke banners that will take website visitors straight through to your trust’s referral page when they click on it from your site, which helps trusts market the facility. The more it’s marketed, the greater your returns.

Training and Support

Press Releases and Media Training

Are you experiencing difficulties in dealing with the press? Do you need a helping hand to write a press release? Kevin Rye is happy to take calls or emails from any trust on this and other communications issues. Contact him a line on: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 020 7273 1595

Community Matters

Thinking of applying for a grant? Want advice of writing that funding application, or maybe just some pointers about where you can start, then you should speak to our expert at SD Tom Hall. Tom has helped several trusts make successful bids for funding, and is ready to help whether you’re reading to bid for hundreds of thousands at SD know on tom.hall@supporters-direct or 0207 273 1657

Applying for SD Membership

Membership is only £50 a year, and is done on a rolling basis, meaning you rejoin on the anniversary of your last membership. If you have not yet renewed your membership, or would like to discuss aspects of it, including the Independent Examination of Accounts (IE), or you would like help in completing the form, please contact James Mathie, on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling 020 7273 1532


FORTHCOMING PROJECTS THIS SUMMER AT SD

(Please see this June's edition magazine of the magazine for more)

Membership Research

Many trusts often ask us for help with a membership recruitment drive. They want to know how best to boost numbers, so as boost income and influence.

With any marketing campaign, a key issue is to know your audience and to help trusts. We’ve commissioned Associa, a firm specialising in research on membership organisations, to survey trust members to help us get a better picture of crucial issues such as:

• Why people join trusts
  
  
• Why they stay members
  
  
• What they like about the trust
  
  
• Who they are
  
  
• What would make them volunteer more
  

The more trusts can assist by promoting the survey amongst their own members, the greater the reliability and so the better quality the recommendations will be.

Membership Management

A key aspect of retaining members is to professionally manage your relationship and communication with them. To help Trusts, we’ve commissioned an online tool designed by trusts, for trusts, to help manage all the crucial aspects of communicating with members. The pilot group of Trusts are busy testing the beta version and giving their feedback to the developers, and we’ll be rolling it out to members of SD in the summer.


Model Rules

The rules used by Trusts were written back in 1999 before the vast majority of trusts were formed. Certain assumptions had to be made, and whilst most were very accurate, many of you have often commented that the model rules sometimes seem to get in the way of achieving your goals.

We think its time to revisit the rules and get a new set based on the real-world experience of volunteer-run trusts. We want to keep what is valuable and helpful, get rid of what’s not, and add in those things that were missed first time around.

We held a consultation session at the Bradford Development Day in April and some really good feedback was received from delegates. The event will be run again at the Bristol Development Day and after that, we’ll be consulting more widely before coming up with a new set in the autumn which Trusts can then adopt at their AGMs if they want to benefit from them.


INDUSTRY NEWS


Laporta censure motion gathers momentum

Club members have launched a censure motion against the management of the Spanish club that seeks to oust president Joan Laporta and his board of directors. Oriol Giralt Gili and Christian Castellvi Clement have delivered a written warning to the board informing them that they had begun the process to request a censure motion, essentially a vote of no confidence, against the board, the club said on its website following a poor season. "More than ever, a censure motion is necessary," Gili has said. Barcelona's club statutes allow for a motion of censure to be officially put in place if five percent of the club's members who qualify as voters - adults who have been members for more than one year - sign a petition. The club has roughly 117,000 members with voting rights, meaning the petition will need to gather the signatures of around 6,000 members. Giralt has called on board members to support the bid. “For the directors it would be very important to see if the club member, through the voting process, wants the board and Laporta to continue.”

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